Death Penalty

3-20-13 WOSO Commentary

For those of us who do not believe in the death penalty, the Federal Court case of Alexis Candelario Santana presently before the jury really puts one´s principles to the test.

Here is a person who has murdered 22 people, including 9 innocent persons in the 2009 La Tómbola massacre. Among those murdered was an 8 month fetus in the mother’s womb (the epitome of innocence). He also murdered the only son of a first cousin who was his grandson. Some 10 years before La Tómbola massacre, Alexis had murdered this same first cousin´s brother. 

Alexis was found guilty of the 9 La Tómbola murders, conspiracy to distribute narcotic drugs, and possession of weapons despite prior convictions.

No friends or family members attended the initial trial and he has showed no remorse throughout. El Nuevo Día reported yesterday that during his first cousin’s testimony Alexis bowed his head and closed his eyes “as if affected by the declarations.”  This seems to be the first showing of some humanity in this man.

Puerto Rican juries have voted against the death sentence in the prior four cases. The vote for the death sentence has to be unanimous and it will be interesting to see if this will be the first case. For reasons I will elaborate in next week’s commentary, by which time we should have a decision, I do not favor the death penalty, even in this horrendous case.

Cuco Somoza

4-3-13 WOSO Commentary

Last Thursday my wife and I attended the standing room only funeral mass for our dentist of some 30 years, Francisco (Cuco) Somoza, who died of cancer.

Cuco was the perfect professional and went against the grain in what I call Puerto Rico’s medical UNCARE appointment system.  Cuco’s office gave you an appointment for a specific hour and Cuco received you punctually at the scheduled time with a warm smile and expert dental services.

Although all my doctors in Puerto Rico are similarly friendly and effective regarding their medical advice and treatment, the majority give appointments for a given day on a first come, first serve basis. The way I have dealt with this uncaring system in the past is to patiently make various calls towards the end of the day in order to determine when I can arrive and be attended to with the least amount of waiting time. The risk is that my last call is too late and they can no longer take care of me which is precisely what happened to me last week.  

Because I needed to schedule an operation prior to our trip to Iran scheduled for April 15^th, I could not risk missing another appointment and thus played the system in the normal way, that is, arrive very early and patiently wait for various hours.

I arrived at 7:10 am to sign up on the sheet put up by the first patient arriving around 6 am. I was number 16 on the list. Because the office opens at 8 am and the doctor arrived between 8:30 and 9, the first person on the list saw the doctor around 9 so his waiting time was some three hours.  I saw the doctor at a little after 11 am and so I ended up waiting some 4 hours.

In closing, all I can say is that I will miss my punctual and affable dentist, Cuco Somoza, very much!

Punctuality in Puerto Rico

4-10-13 WOSO Commentary

In my commentary of last week I praised my dentist Cuco Somoza for giving and punctually honoring medical appointments thereby going against the general medical practice in Puerto Rico of giving appointments on a first come first serve basis.

A person who heard last week’s commentary remarked that we Puerto Ricans are not punctual. I wholeheartedly disagree. Let me give you some examples.

Puerto Rico Symphony concerts start on time and those who are a few minutes late sit out in the lobby missing the first of three pieces that make up the program. Few people are late. Compare this with the popular music concerts at the Choliseo that one never knows when they will start other than that they will not start on time

The same thing happens in churches. Few arrive late when the priest makes it a habit to  begin the mass punctually. In those churches in which the priest gives latecomers the opportunity to arrive, the churchgoers come in later the next time, the priest waits longer, and one never knows the real starting time.

San Juan Rotary Tuesday luncheons start punctually at 12:30 and end at 1:30. There is rarely a latecomer.

Our family business Board starts punctually at 7 am with all 13 persons from management and the Board present at the agreed time.

Puerto Rico passengers arrive on time for their flights since we know the flight will leave without us and there will be personal inconveniences and monetary consequences.   

I could go on with many other examples indicative that the immense majority of  patients in Puerto Rico will be punctual if appointments are scheduled and honored by the doctor with consequences for those who are late, or do not show up at all. 

Closing the Deficit by Effective Enforcement

2 -27-13 WOSO Commentary

In addition to reforming and updating our various tax laws, we need to effectively enforce our existing laws. For example there are a large number of properties that have been improved and have not been assessed. Surely investing in bringing these properties into the tax system is an economic no brainer.

The same can be said for the IVU or sales tax in which only some 40 % comply whereas in the US this figure is in the mid 60%. Recently, some businesses who have not deposited sales taxes collected have had their bank accounts attached.  This is a great first step. When it is determined that this non deposit is intentional and unjustified, then an effective second step is to bring a criminal action.

We all know that there is serious underreporting of income in Puerto Rico. There needs to be put in place mechanisms to detect when income reported does not match the wealth accumulated and the life style of the taxpayer. I would require taxpayers to file under oath a simple balance sheet describing as of December 31^st their assets and liabilities similar to what one provides a bank for a loan.

Effective enforcement of existing tax laws, including criminal actions, will generate substantial revenue, ensure that everyone pays their fair share, and convey the needed message that all laws need to be obeyed.  

Christmas 2012 - Mas Christ

12-26-12 WOSO Commentary

I trust you had an enjoyable Christmas. Did you keep Christ in mind?

In Spanglish, Christ  Mas  or mas Christ would lead us to increase the inclusion of Christ in Christmas.

One of the things that irks me the most is to see Christmas written as Xmas, akin to K-Mart or Wal-mart or Walgreens. All great retail chains that I respect very much, but Christmas is a religious holy day (in addition to a holiday).  With Santa Claus, and the gifts, there needs to be the remembrance of the birth of the Christ child.

My wife Pinky is a German descendant (Bauermeister) and for the past three years we visited the Christmas markets in Bavaria. Bavaria is very Catholic and it is said that Santa Claus comes from St. Nicklaus (Sankt Nikolaous) a bishop whose death is celebrated on December 6^th in Germany.

The  merger of many cultures makes Christmas a very complex combination on which a very lengthy book could be written with respect to each country, including Puerto Rico.

Of course, in Puerto Rico, we still benefit from our dual culture and for some on our Island, gifts are given on Three Kings”s Day and not Christmas that is more religious. Unfortunately, this tradition has been overwhelmed by Santa Claus (formerly Saint Nicholas) and there is no turning back.

Although we cannot resurrect Three Kings’ Day to what it once was, we can make sure that the religious importance of Christmas is not entirely overwhelmed. It is up to us. Mas Christ.  God bless you.

Applauding Good Service

1-23-13 WOSO Commentary

It is said that comments regarding a bad product or service spreads out to at least 8 persons whereas communications on good products and services are rarely communicated. In order to somewhat balance this scale, I would like to describe my recent very positive experience.

I had given my brief talk to the public school students attending the Model UN Conference at the UPR Cayey campus and had an early lunch with the UNA USA PR Executive Director, Ricardo Arzuaga, My next appointment was a golf invitation for my brother in law Guillermo Estella in appreciation for his handling so well my new consultant technological issues. My Chrysler Sebring would not start nor would the transmission move out of Park. About three years ago I had a similar problem involving a plastic part that had to be replaced. It was about 11:30 am and I was a good hour and a half from the Dorado Beach golf course.

I called the service department of Flagship Chrysler, a Bella Group affiliate, and we confirmed that it was that same plastic part and that I would need to have the car towed to the dealership on the western side of Bayamón. He gave me the name of a recommended towing company but I remembered that my insurance policy provided for emergency assistance. Sure enough, with my car registration was the Antilles Insurance Assist number and a list of the emergency items covered, including towing services and car rental if the car had to be left at the dealer for repair.

I called Antilles Assist and in less than an hour the tow truck arrived. Not only did the tow truck arrive on schedule but Antilles Assist proactively followed up to confirm that I had received timely and competent towing services. The young tow truck driver was very efficient and friendly. He took the car and me to the Flagship Chrysler. Tow trucks are relatively slow and quite rough, but you can’t have everything.  

Although both the tow truck driver and the dealer offered to drive me back to my apartment in the San Patricio area, I still wanted to go ahead with the golf date at Dorado Beach and so the two options were to rent a car at the Bella Group Car Rental desk at the dealership or have my son in law Guillermo pick me up since the dealer is on the way to Dorado Beach.  I decided to rent the car since my car would probably not be ready until at least Tuesday. In addition, it sounded like my car insurance would reimburse me for the rental car for up to 4 days and $300.

The process for accepting my Chrysler and renting the Honda Fit took about 20 minutes, and I was soon on my way to meet with Guillermo at Dorado Beach where we got in 12 holes of golf.

The Bella Car Rental person mentioned that there would be a daily insurance charge unless she received by fax or e-mail on Monday a certificate from Antilles Insurance. I called Doris Amoros at Anglo/Antilles Monday morning with the request and in about an hour she copied me on the e-mail to Bella Car rental. The person at Bella Car confirmed by phone that she had what she needed from Antilles.   

On Monday morning around 10:30 am the Flagship Chrysler person called to advise that he had to order the part which would arrive the next day and that the car would be ready on Wednesday.  I had asked them to check on a couple of other minor matters and to provide the recommended maintenance items for the mileage. He reported on what they had found and gave a quote which I accepted. Luckily on Wednesday afternoon we had a family activity in Dorado and we were able to deliver the rental car and pick up the Chrysler Sebring on the way to Dorado.       

In short, these are three service companies (Antilles Insurance affiliated with Anglo Puerto Rican Insurance Corp, the towing company Antilles contracted, and Bella Group with its two affiliates Flagship Chrysler and Bella Car Rental) that gave me outstanding service – they responded in a timely matter, provided an estimate of cost and time to accomplish the service, and met their estimate. The service was courteous and it was clear that they were experts in their area of service.

Service like this converts what could be a negative and stressful experience into a positive one. It needs to be applauded at the personal/private level with those who rendered the service and at the public level in order to balance all the negativism one is peppered with all the time.  We must not limit ourselves to criticizing the bad, albeit constructively; we need to applaud the good. Both are necessary and help make us more effective.   

Anti-Amnesty

3-13-13 WOSO Commentary

It seems that every new administration faced with the need to raise funds comes up with the strategy of offering an amnesty. This administration is headed in the same direction.

I am totally against further amnesties for the following three reasons:

First of all, I am convinced that there are citizens out there that accumulate debts in order to pay when the periodic amnesty appears. I would call them amnesty payers. Others who are relatively up to date stop paying pending invoices in order to take advantage of the amnesty law.

Secondly, amnesties are unfair to those who timely comply with their obligations and this unfairness will lead some to not be as responsible.

Thirdly, if we want a society of law and order, then we have to enforce strict compliance with all our laws.

Bottom line, amnesties hurt Government cash flows in the long run, incentivate irresponsibility, and do great harm to the creation of a society of law and order. 

In closing, I want to clarify that my anti amnesty position is not to say that tax evaders who voluntarily come forward, or taxpayers who are facing financial hardships, should not be able to negotiate reasonable plans in accordance with the particular facts of each case.